Oil sales drop by one third due to high price

ANKARA - Anatolia News agency

Drivers have been switching to alternatives of oil to avoid high fuel expenses, pulling oil sales down by 32 percent in past seven years. DAILY NEWS photo

Sales of oil decreased by 32 percent in the last seven years, according to figures revealed by Turkey’s energy watchdog, due to an increase in the use of LPG and number of diesel-power vehicles.

The Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) data unveiled that despite the increasing number of vehicles entering the traffic over years, the oil sales have dropped invariably.

The oil sales in 2006 retreated by 4.1 percent from 2005 and reached 2.6 million tons and it has been continuing to fall every year since then.

The biggest plummet in oil sales came in 2008 at 10.6 percent. That year only 2.2 million tons of oil were used by the vehicles. After the fall of oil sales by 6.6 percent to 1.8 million tons, the drop of seven years totaled more than 903,800 which corresponds to 32 percent of the initial amount in 2005.

As the drivers continue to seek ways to avoid high fuel expenses, their run away from oil is surging.

Meanwhile, in the first four months of this year, the oil sales have slightly moved upwards with a 1.6 percent increase from 533,620 to 542,000 tons.